Machines and plants for cutting packs of panels of wood and/or other material are usually provided, upstream of each cutting line, with a carriage capable of moving both horizontally and perpendicularly to said cutting line and comprising grippers to grip the rear side of a pack, which is parallel to said line, so as to advance said pack toward the cutting station, with strokes having an extent that is pre-established by the cutting cycle to which the pack of panels is to be submitted each time.
Conventional grippers are usually provided with a respective actuating device to be opened and closed, said device comprising a fluid-operated, double acting cylinder-and-piston unit, the arrangement being such that in the closing step each gripper conforms accurately to the small differences in thickness of the gripped portions of said pack. The presence of these selective acutating devices is a complication and limitation affecting the changes in the grouping of the grippers into a given battery formation due to the different dimensions of the packs of panels to be handled, and adversely affects the manufacturing and operating costs of the panel-handling unit.